What do you think?

Nope your wrong, the competition is only a small part of the convention and the comp room in and of its self is about education that's what the critiques are all about.

This thread is about competing, Every state convention has way more effort put into education than they do into the competition aspect of it.

Your'e trying to read something into it that's not there. You obviously don't care for comps so why worry so much about it, if you don't like it then fine just don't enter it's not for everyone.

 

No Id rather it be as anonymous as possible which is hard with all the media these days. why would you want to put the names on them? I had someone else roll my piece into the comp room for me this year.

 

Jerry, I never said I don't care for competitions, in fact stated that I've been getting the urge to enter the arena. Unfortunately most competitions in my neck of the woods have not jived with the family agenda, so to speak.

 

3Bears, I think you misunderstood the meaning of my statement "...they don't even compete with mediocre state shows when it comes to attendance." I didn't mean anything by that other than these shows were not as large as state shows. Mr. Huffaker is right, the competition is only part of the convention. I am extremely involved in the planning of our state show and the competition is the easy part to plan. Education is first and foremost when it comes to our convention. This is most evident in the classes we have running basically nonstop from Friday thru Sunday. Classes that would cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars if not for the association putting them on. We also have a get together Friday night which is a great way to network with other taxidermists around the region. The reason all of the responses in this thread focus on the competition aspect of the convention, is because that was the subject of the initial question.

 

Cole, I understand. I am interested in the whole experience.

 

Funny thing, I have 30+ trophy's, 3 WASCO and bunch of McKenzie awards and plaques, Breakthrough and enough ribbons for a parade all over my show room area for taxidermy. My wife put my 3, 300 bowling game rings and a 299 ring in a little case on the wall in the same area. You know almost every customer says wow 3 perfect games and not a peep on all the taxidermy awards. Love the competitions but just saying.

 

I think that any mount that has been critiqued(scored) in any competition should have to go into a "prejudged category", which does not exist..

The KEY word is "competition"
I'll spare websters definition. It's simple to look up.

When a piece leaves a taxidermists shop for the first time, heading to whatever " COMPETITION" that it may be heading to, that is entirely that taxidermists work, assuming that said taxidermist had no help, which against "competition" rules. That competition piece should also be the best work said taxidermist is capable of.



Continued showing of that same mount and tweaking between showings, based off of score sheets, IMO is getting away from what competition is about, one taxidermist skills against another. Mono e mono.. Like Jerry said, not a whole lot can be done when rehydrating and tweaking BUT enough to gain a point or 2 can be a huge difference in some cases. It can and has made a difference.

As far as keeping mounts anonymous, that's totally possible with mounts that are shown in more than 1 show..

 

CarolinBD, do you compete? Are you involved with a taxidermy organization?

I ask these 2 questions because I feel like there is some disconnect between what you are proposing and reality. Do judges sometimes know whose piece they are judging? Yes. Does it change the way they judge that piece? We hope not, and try to hire judges with strong integrity so that doesn't happen. Has it ever made a difference? Probably.

Here are the problems with your suggestion:

a) No matter what you do, some judges will know who did particular pieces without having seen it before. I judged NE a couple years ago and knew who had done every masters entry, and one of the professional entries. I had never seen any of these pieces before, but have competed against and judged these people before, and recognized their work. I can walk into any show I've attended and pick out several mounts and name the artist with a great level of certainty, without having seen them before. Only allowing "new" mounts at a show would do little to keep the artist anonymous.

b) Taxidermy conventions are expensive (relative to the income they generate). The last thing you want to do if you wish to have a successful convention is reduce participation.

c) If you have ever invested 100 hours or more (sometimes WAY more than that) into a piece, it's beneficial to get as much feedback from that as possible. Get as much "bang for your buck" if you will. Learn as much as you can from as many as you can with every piece you do. Not to mention, if you do enjoy going to more than one show per year, who would have time to mount something different for each of them?

 

This is a little off topic, but came to mind because of something said above. Let's see if I have this right. You may have as many people's opinions on a piece as you want and it only becomes a " collective artist " piece if another physically works on it. Always wondered about that. Would that be correct ?

 

That's right, getting an opinion doesn't mean that you can execute the solution.

Everyone has gotten advice, teaching, tips , skills, whatever from articles, friends , mentors, teachers, videos. No one is 100% self taught.

Getting advice and tips is one thing but being able to apply what you've learned is a whole different thing.

I could take singing lessons from the best teachers available for

the rest of my life and I can assure you I'll never be able to sing.

 

. that is how I see it too. If you think about it, everything at a show should be in collective artist division unless you sculpted the manikin and made the habitat yourself! Also, I am not a fan of any rule that excludes someone from competing. Let them all get together and bring the absolute best they can muster. It's up to you to beat them anyway. You won't ever get good until you stop running from serious competition whether you think it's fair or not.

 

I guess we will argue about this forever Tim, You have learned from past critiques before you put together this mount, it is the EXACT same thing as changing a mount that has just been critiqued. You just chose to change it on the next head you mounted. How can that not be the same thing.

 

Even if you sculpt your own form you are still using knowledge you have learned from other sources in the past. Even sculpting the form. So I guess it should be a combined artists piece as well with recognition for everyone we've learned from.

 

No argument here. I just see things a little differently.. I just think it's getting away from what a "true competition" between fellow taxidermists, who are friends, is really all about.. It's adding another layer of "gray" area.
I'm positive that I'm not the only one that's believes this way.. BUT the rules allow it so it is what it is..

I've also wondered why I cannot enter a piece at a show get it critiqued, take home, work on it and re-enter the same mount, with changes made, in the same show the following year?

 

All have great meaningful comments. Mission accomplished a ton of people are talking about the show. Thank you all

 

As always Tim I see your point but there is one remaining fact that can't be disputed, it will kill the conventions. Every state convention barely has enough revenue to keep going every year, this will directly effect the out of state entries drastically especially if your show is before their home show. Oklahoma is a great example , there would never be any entries from Texas members because their show is two weeks before ours nearly every year. What would happen to Nationals , none of the mounts entered before the NTA would be able to enter and anything entered in Nationals couldn't be entered in their home state if it was after Nationals.
Do you see where this goes.

 

We will be talking about it at the show and vote. So everybody there will count no matter where you come from. So I guess what i am saying come one come all. Our intent was and never will be to exclude anyone. We were trying to stop bickering and name calling that is all.